Telephone (song)
"Telephone" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga from her second studio album The Fame Monster, featuring American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. The song was written by Gaga and Rodney Jerkins. The main inspiration of the song was Gaga's fear of not being able to enjoy herself because of her dedication to her career. The lyrics portray the singer as preferring the dance floor, rather than answering her lover's phone calls. Gaga explained that the telephone addressed in the lyrics of the song, is in reality a person telling her to continue working harder. Musically, the song consists of an expanded bridge, verse-rap and an epilogue where the line is disconnected. Knowles appears in the middle of the song, singing the verses in a rapid-fire way, accompanied by double beats. "Telephone" was appreciated by contemporary critics who frequently noted it as a stand-out track from The Fame Monster. The song charted in a number of countries due to digital sales, namely in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Hungary, following the album's release. The song has been particularly successful in Europe, reaching the top of the charts in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom. She performed an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" mixed with "Dance In The Dark" at the 2010 BRIT Awards in memory of Alexander McQueen. It was also added to the setlist of the European leg of The Monster Ball Tour. Gaga explained that the music video is a continuation of the video for "Paparazzi", and is also shot as a short film. The video features Gaga in a prison, from where she gets bailed out by Beyoncé. They go to a diner where, after a series of events, they kill the guests having breakfast. It ends with Gaga and Beyoncé escaping from the police. Paying homage to Quentin Tarantino and his films Kill Bill (2003–2004) and Pulp Fiction (1994) and Callie Khouri's Thelma & Louise, the video was positively received by critics. Background Gaga originally wrote "Telephone", with Rodney Jerkins, for Britney Spears. However, Spears' label rejected it and Gaga recorded the song as a collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles for The Fame Monster.[2] Gaga said, "I wrote it for her a long time ago and she just didn't use it for her album. It's fine because I love the song and I get to perform it now."[3] Additionally, the guest vocalist was originally going to be Spears, but for an unknown reason, Gaga made Knowles the featured vocalist instead.[4][5] The main inspiration behind the song was Gaga's fear of suffocation as she felt that she seldom found time to just let loose and have fun. She further clarified, "Fear of suffocation—something that I have or fear is never being able to enjoy myself, ... 'Cause I love my work so much, I find it really hard to go out and have a good time. ... "I don't go to nightclubs, ... You don't see pictures of me falling out of a club drunk. I don't go—and that's because I usually go and then, you know, a whiskey and a half into it, I got to get back to work."[6] =Composition= "Telephone" was written by Lady Gaga, Rodney Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Lazonate Franklin and Knowles.[7] Although constructed as a duet, the song features Knowles, first appearing in the middle verse and singing her lyrics through a brief interlude, and backs the chorus during the rest of the song.[8] The song starts off unassumingly, with Gaga singing in a solemn voice over a harp melody, which changes immediately to a pounding beat.[9] Essentially, Gaga's in a club and her boyfriend keeps ringing, but she could not talk as she was drinking and dancing to her favourite song. The chorus runs as follows: "Stop calling, stop calling, I don't want to talk anymore." "Telephone" consists of an expanded bridge, verse-rap and an epilogue where a voice announces that the telephone line is not reachable at that moment.[8] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is set in the time signature of common time, with a tempo of 120 beats per minute. Gaga's vocals range from the low-note of F3 to the high-note of C5. It is set in the key of F minor and has a basic sequence of Fm–A♭–B♭–Fm as its chord progression.[10] The lyrics of "Telephone" relate to the singer preferring the dance floor to answering someone's call. The verses are sung in a rapid-fire way, accompanied by double beats.[11] According to Gaga, the phone addressed in the lyrics of the song is not a physical phone, but a person in her head telling her to keep working harder and harder. Gaga explained, "That's my fear—that the phone's ringing and my head's ringing, ... Whether it's a telephone or it's just the thoughts in your head, that's another fear."[6] Critical reception The song has garnered positive reviews from music critics. Michael Hubbard from MusicOMH said that the song was "probably the best thing here [on The Fame Monster]." He also complimented the "brilliant bridge" and the ending of the song where the caller gets through to her voicemail.[8] Popjustice gave the song a positive review: "It's a little bit like Gwen's 'What You Waiting For?' meets Timbaland's 'The Way I Are' meets about fifty other things....The structure's quite exciting ... there is something tumultuously brilliant about Beyoncé's contribution that makes everything seem fine and as if it was the plan all along."[4] Evan Sawdey from PopMatters said that "The much talked-about Beyoncé collaboration 'Telephone', which—with its double-time beat and rapid-fire verses—proves to be one of the most adrenaline-pumped songs that Gaga has yet crafted, the whole thing feeling like it's about to veer of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic [sic]] the tracks at any moment simply due to the giddy excitement shared between the two divas, easily turning it into the unquestioned highlight of The Fame Monster".[12] Bill Lamb from About.com listed it among the top tracks on the album and said: "The Beyoncé assisted 'Telephone' is a club stomper that will draw in R&B and Hip Hop fans as well on the radio."[13] In a separate review, he compared it to the "Just Dance" era and commented: "An odd track for a lot of reasons. Lyrically, it is a successor to 'Just Dance'. The lyrics involve Gaga talking about not wanting to use her phone in the club. Having a track like this, when it feels like 'Just Dance' was so long ago and a different Gaga, is a little awkward. Especially when it is a planned single...It's fun and disposable but there are better tracks on The Fame Monster to offer as singles".[14] Mikael Woods from Los Angeles Times felt that "Telephone" is " a carefully considered meditation on how annoying it is when a dude keeps calling you while you're throwing down at the club."[15] Nicki Escuerdo from Phoenix New Times listed "Telephone" as a stand-out track from the album.[16] Sarah Hajhbagheri from The Times was not impressed with the song and said "The appearance of Beyoncé’s vocal alongside ringtones on Telephone adds to the sense of utter chaos."[17] Melanie Bertoldi from Billboard gave the song a positive review, stating "Much like Kesha's 'Blah Blah Blah', 'Telephone' sets out to silence bugaboos, with whom featured artist Beyoncé is all too familiar. ... By the time "Telephone" surges through a wall of cellular bleeps to return to its simple introduction, Gaga and Beyoncé have left the listener with just one option: surrender to the dancefloor."[18] Armond White, music and film critic for the New York Press, criticized the song saying that it "celebrates a heedless refusal to communicate; to mindlessly, heartlessly indulge pop culture—Tarantino style."[19] Chart performance In November 2009 due to strong digital sales, the song charted in Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom, debuting at numbers twenty-six, twenty-nine, and thirty respectively.[20] The song became the top debut on the U.S. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100] issue dated December 12, 2009, at number thirty, due to digital sales.[21] After a few weeks fluctuating down the charts, "Telephone" has reached a peak of three on the chart, becoming Gaga's sixth consecutive top ten hit in the United States.[22] The song peaked at number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart on the issue dated February 27, 2010.[23] On March 15, 2010, Billboard announced that the song reached number one on the Pop Songs chart, thus becoming Gaga's sixth consecutive number-one on the chart, making her the only artist in history to do this. It also became Beyoncé's sixth number-one on Pop Songs. With this, Gaga and Beyoncé tied with Mariah Carey for most number-ones since the Nielsen BDS-based Top 40 airplay chart launched in 1992.[24] The song has sold over 2.3 million digital downloads according to Nielsen Soundscan.[25] In Australia, the song has reached a peak of three.[26] "Telephone" was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 70,000 copies of the single.[27] In New Zealand, the song debuted at thirty-one, becoming the highest debut of that week.[28] On April 5, 2010, the song reached a peak of three on the chart.[29] "Telephone" debuted at fourteen on the Canadian Hot 100[20] and moved to a peak of three, making it Gaga's sixth consecutive top three single there.[30] The song has been certified three times platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for shipment of 120,000 digital downloads.[31] "Telephone" debuted at thirty-three on the Swedish charts,[20] and in the top-ten at number three on the Hungarian charts.[32] 'Music Video' The music video was filmed January 28, 2010 by director Jonas Åkerlund.3637 New York magazine reported that the concept of the video involved Beyoncé bailing Gaga out of jail. Other concepts of the video involves scenes at a diner, a cameo from singer Tyrese Gibson, and a prison shower scene. Gaga and Beyoncé wore "destroyed denim pieces" by designers Frank Fernández and Oscar Olima.[39] With E! Online, Gaga explained the deeper meaning behind the video. "There was this really amazing quality in 'Paparazzi', where it kind of had this pure pop music quality but at the same time it was a commentary on fame culture. ... I wanted to do the same thing with this video.. ... There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the 'Telephone' video, ... thumb|300px|right|Lady GaGa's official music video for "Telephone". Synopsis Described by MTV as "Part hyper kinetic pop-culture joyride — nods to everything from films like "Caged Heat" and "Kill Bill" to seizure-inducing Japanese television and the color-drenched photography of David LaChapelle — part electric dance extravaganza", "Telephone" is over nine minutes long. The video opens at a women's prison, where Gaga is led to her cell by a pair of burly female prison guards. She is stripped of her shoulder-padded dress and locked in her cell, left nude, albeit with fishnets and nipple tape, before she throws herself against the cell bars (Gaga's crotch area is censored) as the women leave. As they leave, one comments, "I told you she didn't have a dick", referring to the intersex rumors regarding Gaga. Then, for three minutes, the video shows Gaga's life in the prison - including a make-out scene in the exercise yard, wearing sunglasses made out of half-smoked cigarettes, and a catfight in the commissary. After that, Gaga gets a phone call, when the song actually starts. As the loud beats of the song is played, Gaga and her inmates do a dance sequence, wearing studded underwear, fishnets and stiletto heels. Gaga is then bailed out, and goes outside to find Beyoncé waiting for her in the "Pussy Wagon". After an exchange of dialogues, they travel through a desert and pull over at a diner. Beyoncé sits opposite to Tyrese Gibson (who plays her boyfriend in the video), but poisons him after watching him try to hit on the other women in the diner. The video then shifts to an intermediate sequence called 'Let's Make a Sandwich'. Gaga stands in a kitchen, wearing a folded-up telephone on her head, while dancers cavort behind her, wielding salad tongs and assorted cutlery. Ultimately, she prepares a sandwich and eats it, after a dance sequence. While Gibson begins to feel the effects of his poisoned coffee, she mixes poison into much of the food in the kitchen. Gibson finally dies after eating much of his poisoned food, and, after Gaga counts to three in German, everyone in the diner (including Semi-Precious Weapons and Gaga's signature dog) begins to die from the poisoned kitchen food. Gaga and Beyoncé do another dance sequence, wearing American flag dresses and shredded denims, while strutting around the dead bodies. They then leave on the "Pussy Wagon" and travel on the highway. The last shots show Gaga and Beyoncé fleeing towards the horizon in the "Pussy Wagon" as police sirens wail in the background. The video ends with the line "To Be Continued..." as a helicopter is seen hovering over the truck. thumb|left|300px|Companyquad.com's Parody of Lady GaGa's music video. On August 9, 2010, Company Quad released a parody, calling it 'Telephone | THE OFFICE VERSION (Lady Gaga and Beyoncé Spoof) -CompanyQuad.com'. On the video, Lady GaGa said "ok this is amazing, maybe better than original. manwhore." [1] http://ladygaga.wikia.com/index.php?title=Telephone_(music_video)&action=edit&section=3 edit Development The music video was filmed on January 28, 2010, and directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Auditions for the music video were held on Monday, January 18, 2010. Reportedly, the casting call was looking for a lot of prison inmates, and Lady Gaga and Beyoncé body doubles.[1] The concept of the video involves Beyoncé bailing Lady Gaga out of jail, and is a continuation of the "Paparazzi" short film.[2] Photos from the set portrayed Gaga and Beyoncé shooting for scenes of the video in the "Pussy Wagon" from Quentin Tarantino's 2004 film Kill Bill. The video was shot outside Los Angeles, California, in Lancaster, California. Exterior shots of the prison, the exercise yard scenes, the scene at the prison gate, and possibly interior prison scenes were filmed at the closed Lincoln Heights Jail at 401 N Avenue 19, Los Angeles, California. Other concepts of the video involves scenes at a diner, a cameo from singer/model Tyrese Gibson, and a prison shower scene. Gaga and Beyoncé will wear "destroyed denim pieces" by designers Frank Fernández and Oscar Olima. Lady Gaga is seen having a telephone on her head, and Beyoncé is seen sporting a wig with bangs.[3] In the desert where the video was shot, a photo was taken on Janurary 28, 2010, at 4:35 in the afternoon. This photo shows Lady Gaga and Beyoncé walking on sand, and Gaga is seen wearing a purple feathered dress with some form of a red bow on her head. Beyoncé is seen in a blue/turquoise outfit, both have on black stiletto high heels. On February 5, 2010, Gaga had an interview on KIIS-FM with Ryan Seacrest. She explained that the video picks up where "Paparazzi" left off, she's in jail for killing her boyfriend, but she's actually having a good time behind bars and doesn't want to leave. She is constantly getting phone calls, but refuses to take any until she gets the call she wants.[4] She further commented on the video saying, "I feel so bad for the "Bad Romance" video ’cause the "Telephone" video’s so much better. What I like about it is it’s a real, true pop event, and when I was younger, I was always excited when there was a big giant event happening in pop music and that’s what I wanted this to be."[5] Semi Precious Weapons confirmed that they have a cameo in the music video, however, they also revealed that they die in the video.[6]